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This article attempts to apply Rank?s concept of individual birth trauma to the history of ancient Israel as depicted in the Bible. The birth of the Jewish people as reviewed in the relevant Biblical texts demonstrates recurrent and significant traumata at individual, family, and large-scale collective levels, indicating that the early Israelites did experience collective birth trauma. Ramifications of this for a greater understanding of the Bible and of Jewish history and cultural practices are explored.

Rizzuto and Freud consider that the origins of God representations can be traced to early parental relations, but Rizzuto postulates that Freud underestimates the ?complexities of this derivation, especially the role of the mother? (Wulff, 1997, pp. 343-344). To what extent is Rizzuto right in agreeing with Freud? Is there any evidence to support how God can be represented in pre and perinatal terms, within a psychodynamic framework?

The intention of this paper is to introduce interdisciplinary research challenging the foundations of self-growth fields and leading to the birth of a new humanity. The paper briefly summarizes relevant literature and introduces new adult verbal and nonverbal typologies with origins in four key preverbal developmental stages (conception, prenatal, birth and bonding). Interdisciplinary contributing fields included are embryology, neurobiology, attachment theory, body-centered psychotherapy, somatic psychology, and prenatal and perinatal psychology.

This article presents a very basic challenge with regard to the way in which human beings enter into this world. This is not just a challenge to the medical model, but to ?natural childbirth? methods as well. It addresses the fundamentals of language that have guided our core concepts of sexuality and birth. It is not limited to the English language, but points out the roots of words from many languages that have contributed to world-wide attitudes and concepts.

This paper reports on a study designed to explore factors contributing to better outcomes for substance abusing pregnant and parenting women in residential treatment, and, as a result, contribute to better outcomes for their children. The setting was three live-in units focusing in supporting both abstinence from substances and mother-child relationship. Participants were 18 mother-baby pairs in treatment from perinatal phase to 4 months of child's age.

This study examined the relationship between maternal prenatal attachment and postnatal infant sleep. Ninety first-time pregnant mothers, between 35 and 40 gestational weeks, completed the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (M?ller, 1989), which consists of 21 items and assesses the mother?s prenatal attachment to her fetus. After the birth of their infant, the mothers charted their infant?s sleep for three consecutive 24-hour periods when the infant was 1 week and 3 months old, using the Sleep/Activity Record (Barnard, 1999).

An Interactional Model of Maternal-Fetal Attachment was empirically studied to analyze contributions of fetal characteristics and psychoanalytic and ecological components. Ninety-nine women during their third trimester were administered questionnaires about themselves, their environment, and their fetus to identify predictors of maternal-fetal attachment. Whether the woman knew the fetus? gender and fetal age were the best predictors of the strength of maternal-fetal attachment.

The rapidly developing science of pre-birth psychology is casting a new light on some old problems. One such is morbid obesity, some aspects of which can possibly be explained in the light of prenatal theory. This article sets out the hypothesis that firstly, obesity may represent a self-destructive personal choice. Secondly, there may be a psychological reason why the possibly fatal consequences of that choice are largely ignored by the obese person. Thirdly, the choice and its consequences comprise a style of eating behaviour that seems to re-construct a particular pre-birth experience.

The relationship between traumatic events from conception to birth and the Schizoid Personality Disorder, Dysfunction and Deprivation is explored. From extensive experiential work with clients, based on the work of the British psychiatrist, Dr. Frank Lake, and her own personal experiences, the author discusses the very painful schizoid personality dysfunctions and deprivations relating to traumas of great severity in the first trimester of life. Loss of bonding and fear of intimacy are explored, along with dissociation and boundaries, seen as learned behaviour in the womb.

Economic analysis of human capital?the abilities and skills a person brings to community and work force?suggests that investing in early childhood programs is much more cost-effective than dollars spent intervening later in life. Even with increasing knowledge of the importance of early intervention programs, there still appears to be a mental divide separating the prenatal and birth period and infancy. Programs that begin during infancy or later may not address the fundamental origins of the increasing issues we face regarding our children.